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With schools going on break and summer holidays in full swing, it’s also the summer movie season and so far, it’s been stellar. Box office numbers have been up, and people are going back to the cinemas in droves. We’ve seen in 2025 such juggernauts as A Minecraft Movie, Lilo & Stitch, Sinners … but one of our absolute favorites has been Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Tom Cruise proves once again his movie star charisma brings audiences out to witness the spectacle. No one can entertain like he does. In her review, Cate Marquis says, “The stunt sequences are the major appeal of the series, and this one delivers. Thrilling, physics-defying sequences are abundant in this nearly three-hour long action thriller extravaganza.” Thus far, the film has grossed worldwide $506,816,000. (Box Office Mojo)

If you’re in New York City for your summer vacation, a visit to the Museum...

“The Friend,” starring Bill Murray and Naomi Watts will open the second annual Croatia International Film Festival on August 8 in the coastal city of Sibenik.

Based on the bestselling novel by Sigrid Nunez, “The Friend” follows Iris (Naomi Watts), a writer whose life is upended when her friend and literary mentor (Murray) bequeaths her his beloved Great Dane.

Directed by Scott McGhee and David Siegel, “The Friend,” which debuted at last year’s Telluride Film Festival and then screened at Toronto, was released to North America by Bleecker Street in March.

McGhee and Siegel will also attend Ciff, a four-day event, with Murray.

“We’ve been yearning to visit Croatia ever since working with the great Croatian actor Goran Visnjic in our film ‘The Deep End,'” McGhee and Siegel said in a joint statement. “We couldn’t be more excited about now bringing ‘The Friend’ to Ciff.”

Last year,...

Richard Gere and director Oren Moverman have signed on as an executive producers on “Wisdom of Happiness,” a new documentary about Dalai Lama.

Directed by Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis, “Wisdom of Happiness” features the Dalai Lama, 89, speaking directly to the camera about the universal quest for inner peace and happiness and the potential for a peaceful and happy 21st century.

“This is a small movie that can have a big impact on the future,” says Gere, a longtime student and friend of the Dalai Lama.

Moverman adds: “As a filmmaker I am deeply grateful for the invitation to join this truly unique movie that so beautifully paints loving kindness into a pictorial landscape. Gifting the audience a viewing experience like no other, ‘Wisdom of Happiness’ celebrates our common humanity by way of a wise and surprisingly entertaining messenger.”

Currently in production, the documentary is set for a fourth-quarter release.

Nothing sets a movie's mood like a good title sequence and one of the best to ever design them is Dan Perri. An apprentice of legendary graphic designer Saul Bass, Perri has been putting together title sequences since the 1970s. He's designed sequences as varied as the slow-motion, classically-scored opening of "Raging Bull," to the operatic text crawl of "Star Wars," to the terrifying teaser for "A Nightmare on Elm Street III."

Now, a collection of images from Perri's career are in residence at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. "Dan Perri and the Art of the Title Sequence" is organized by Barbara Miller & guest curator Lola Landekic and aims to spotlight and educate about 50 years of work in one single exhibit.

I had the privilege of speaking with Perri over Zoom about not just this exhibit, but his long and ongoing career working with all sorts of celebrated filmmakers.

"They're not models!" the curator immediately corrected me when I erred in describing the miniatures puppets on display.

In an age of computer-generated 3D overtaking pop culture consciousness, the Oregon-based stop-motion studio Laika (also stylized as Laika) shoots for the stars, creating an alive "it's actually there" tangibility. Founded in 2005, Laika has raked in recognition from prestige circles, earning nods from the Academy Awards, Annie Awards, and a Golden Globe win. Now the textured puppets of Laika have stop-motioned their way to New York's Museum of the Moving Image for the "Laika: Life in Stop Motion" exhibition.

I had a chat with curator Barbara Miller and Laika's Marketing Production Manager Dan Pascal to get to know these puppets and the evolution of Laika. An exhibit 10 years in the making, it spotlights characters and sets from Laika classics: from "Coraline" (2009), "ParaNorman" (2012), "The Boxtrolls" (2014), "Kubo and the Two Strings" (2016), and "Missing Link...

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Locarno Film Festival’s “#Female Pleasure.” Paris-based Cat&Docs is handling world sales on Swiss filmmaker Barbara Miller’s feature doc, which is described as “a plea for the liberation of female sexuality in the 21st century.”

In the film, which world premieres in Locarno’s Critics’ Week on Aug. 5, Miller “embarks on a journey across the world to discover the remaining obstacles that stand in the way of female sexuality in the 21st century and questions the universal patriarchal structures at work,” according to a statement. “She portrays five incredibly courageous women from across the world, revealing their successful battle for a self-determined sex life and an equal, sensual relationship between the sexes against the religious and social rules they live under.”

Miller said the film is “a plea for the right to self-determination for women across the world, regardless of their culture and religion.

It seemed much quieter, less crowded and less exciting this year though Jerome Paillard, Exec Director of the Marche says the registered 11,800 is close to last year’s. numbers. Again U.S. leads in attendance followed by France, UK and China with its 700 participants. Again strong projects did very well, Netflix and Amazon were active, and the Chinese were signing deals.Credit: CBS News

Lots of activity on blockchain and Vr initiatives in the R&D sector. The works in progress initiative, Goes to Cannes had nine festival partners — Annecy, Hong Kong’s Haf, Guadalajara, Los Cabos, Doc Alliance, New Horizons’ Polish Days, Vilnius, Thessaloniki — and was well attended by acquisitions execs. Docs account for almost 20% of all the market titles.

And lots of female filmmaker initiatives and conferences starting with 82 women climbing the Red Carpet steps signifying the 82 films directed by women which have screened in Cannes Competition as...